Page 180 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

2017 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

transmitter/receiver pair are explained in detail. Analyzing
the standard completely, we have identified some lacks and
weaknesses, which are further addressed and discussed in
this work. These shortcomings pose important challenges. A
few of them have been dealt with in previous works [6]–[9],
but most of them are still unexplored, which will
undoubtedly be the starting point for future investigation.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2,
we review the IEEE P1906.1 standard from the perspective
of EM communications. Section 3 is devoted to pointing out
Figure 1. Picture of a nanoscale communication network some weaknesses of the standard for the design of EM
deployed in the bloodstream nanonetworks. In section 4, we indicate how to tackle each
detected weakness. Section 5 concludes the paper.
nanotransceivers [1]–[3]. These novel radiocommunication 2. IEEE P1906.1 STANDARD DESCRIPTION UNDER
nanocomponents possess unbeatable properties, which EM COMMUNICATIONS
allow the radiation of EM waves at THz frequencies with
antennas of just a few micrometers in length, i.e. two orders
of magnitude lower than their metallic counterparts. Even As interdisciplinary research groups are becoming more and
so, this radiation frequency exhibits high propagation more involved in the development of nanoscale
losses, which require a thorough nanoscale communication communications, the lack of a clear common scope has been
network design, also known as a nanonetwork. On the other confirmed, leading to isolated developments and unrelated
hand, molecular communication is defined as the knowledge islands. In this sense, the different cases of study
transmission and reception of information encoded in proposed in the open scientific literature have been thought
organic molecules [4], [5]. Molecular transceivers are about and evaluated under very specific conditions, which
envisioned to facilitate their integration into nanodevices differ for each work. This negatively impacts the exchange
due to their extremely small size and limited domain of of information at the nanoscale, since nanonetwork
operation. These transceivers can react when receiving performance depends on the particular working conditions
certain molecules and release others (as a response to and capabilities of nanodevices. Thus, the IEEE P1906.1
stimulation or after executing some process). The molecules standard [10] is aimed at providing a common framework,
transmitted are propagated in three different ways: moving in order to join efforts and promote future advances in
through a fluidic medium by free diffusion (diffusion- nanoscale communications. In addition, another significant
based); moving through a fluidic medium with a guided contribution of this standard is allowing sufficient precision
flow (flow-based); or through pre-defined pathways by for the development of interoperable and reusable
using carrier substances (walkway-based). components. To achieve these goals, we examine the
Both EM and molecular, nanocommunications are following four aspects of the standard structure: (i)
definitions, (ii) framework, (iii) metrics, and (iv) EM
considered by the IEEE P1906.1 standard; the first communication reference model.
approach to normalize diverse aspects related to
communications at the nanoscale, released in December
2015. Under this general premise, this standard first defines 2.1. Definitions
the concept of a nanoscale communication network itself, to
later propose a conceptual framework for developing The first part of the standard provides a complete and
communications. Studies using the guidelines of this detailed definition of “nanoscale communication network”,
standard would implement a similar protocol stack for each which should pave the way for future studies in this
nanodevice; it is recommended that this stack be based on emerging research field. This definition intends to strictly
the components and procedures specified by the IEEE establish the scope of this concept but, keeping it general
P1906.1 to share and compare results from a common set of enough to cover both molecular and EM communications.
performance metrics as defined by the standard. The range chosen to delimit the nanoscale is quite narrow
This paper reviews the IEEE P1906.1 standard, focusing on (from 1 nm to 100 nm), extracted from the definition of
EM communications; an area in which remarkable nanoscale provided in [11]. The lower limit is simply
technological advances are leading to the first realistic selected to exclude the use of single atoms as nanoscale
approaches at the nanoscale. In particular, we analyze the systems. In contrast, the upper limit is the size at which
standard definition, its pros and cons, describe the material properties change substantially from the
framework offered along with its components and, finally, macroscale. This limit could cause controversy, since most
introduce the main metrics which will be taken into of the scientific papers related to EM nanoscale
consideration to evaluate the performance of a nanoscale communications consider nanodevices at larger scales.
communication network. Furthermore, we provide a Nevertheless, the sentence “at or with the nanoscale”
functional EM communication scheme in which all the steps contained in the definition leaves the door open to different
required to send/receive a message between a considerations, in particular, those concerning the size of

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